Step 4: A Word about Alcohol

Ingredients including Sassafras, cherry bark, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, cane sugar and vanilla cured together with love for days and served chilled - what else could this be other than a love potion?

Root Beer of course! And no fancy forced carbonation equipment is needed. But first, an explanation of sorts is needed on the ingredient list.

I have come to find that Sassafras is illegal to sell in the United States. The main ingredient in Sassafras oil is Safrole - a chemical that has been determined to be mildly carcinogenic by the Food and Drug Administration. Bugger.

Safrole can be removed from Sassafras root oils - but it requires specialized equipment and stringent processing. Not something the average home soda maker can do. The alternative is, processed concentrate :P

Yes, by entering this - I am saying you could win my heart with a bottle of root beer (or even better, home made ginger ale).

Step 1: Ingredients and Materials

SterilizationFill your bottle half way and then add about a quarter cup of chlorine bleach. Then fill the bottle with water to the top. Cap and allow to rest on its side for about fifteen minutes. Afterwards, rinse well.

I have come to find that Sassafras is illegal to sell in the United States. The main ingredient in Sassafras oil is Safrole - a chemical that has been determined to be mildly carcinogenic by the Food and Drug Administration. Bugger.

Safrole can be removed from Sassafras root oils - but it requires specialized equipment and stringent processing. Not something the average home soda maker can do. The alternative is, processed concentrate :P

My understanding is that while Avastin doesn't save lives, for a small segment of the population it adds months or years of extra living. It just works very well for some people. on average, however, it's not very effective and has issues and side effects in many people.

Nonsense, there's many examples of drugs that only work sometimes on some people and have unmanageable side effects when used on others. Personally, I can't handle the side effects of Claritin-D, but it's a godsend to many people.

The best parallel I can think of is AZT. A breakthrough, the very first drug approved to fight HIV, the drug still has serious side effects and was fiendishly expensive.

I can't read the rest of the study. Are they feeding a reasonable amount that would indicate a reasonable exposure level in humans? Would two cups of strong tea per day be a significant risk?

I ask this because I understand that if you cram enough saccharine through a rat in the lab it might just develop cancer.

I've also failed to see the government act to stamp out the harmful practice of slow cooking pork while it is waifing in deadly hardwood smoke. (Ban anything that could be used to make a smoker, and have strict limits on the amount of Boston Butt one could buy. Check ID and make people sign their names in books that are forwarded to the police!)

Clearly there are what most people would say were appropriate reactions to risk factors, and then there are unreasonable freedom restricting policies in place designed to fight the war on (some) drugs. I think of the latter whenever I'm using my (no longer sold) iodine water purification kit in the backcountry.

I'm from an (IL.) area not far from Vincennes (IN.). Sassafras trees are common here. But some do not like to boil the roots { why ??? }.

One alternative in our area is "Pappy's Sassafras (concentrate) Instant Tea". Sold at our local I.G.A. food-chain. A 12oz (355ml) bottle is ruffly $4US. The last bottle I bought had UPC code 0-76299-10012-7. Via; H&K Products Inc, 10246 Road P, Columbus Grove, Ohio, 45830 { phone: 419-659-5110 }. They also have a website; www.sassafrastea.com, you might visit. No, I am not an agent for either of those companies. I just really enjoy my hot (honey sweetend) tea. The tea can also be "infused' to make candy (think Horehound, or root-beer), jelly / jam, or other stuff.

i know u asked 2 years ago but i have an answer...just look at the comment i posted at the top, i enjoy sassafras tea, and every spring go harvest enough sassfras root(not from the same tree, i wanna keep em alive)to last me through out most the year...but u do wanna harvest em in the spring

Unfortunately for you, yeast turns sugar into CO2 and alcohol. There's just no way of getting around that. The amount of alcohol is minimal if that makes a difference for you. You can always get a tank of CO2, a regulator, and a carbonation cap and force carbonate it. But that sorta takes the fun out of it and its expensive. Good luck!

do you konw how to do this with acual sasafrass it grows wild around here and i have no clue what i can do with it other then chewin on the leaves. im guessing i would use the roots for "root"beer thoguh huh?

i know this is an old comment, but if ur still wonderin.... 1⁄4 oz. dried sassafras root bark, 1⁄4 oz. dried birch bark, 1⁄4 oz. dried sarsaparilla root, 1⁄8 oz. dried licorice root, a 1" piece unpeeled thinly sliced fresh ginger, 1 split vanilla bean, 2 qts. water How to make the Root Beer Place all above ingredients into a medium pot and bring to a boil. Remove from heat, cover, and let steep for 2 hours. Strain root-infused liquid through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a plastic container that has been washed well with hot, soapy water. (Discard solids.) follow the instructions given in the instructable to finish...this will just take the place of the rootbeer extract

To be honest, I don't know. After I found out that it was illegal to buy - I stopped reading and looked for alternatives :P You probably can find information by doing a google search -- but do keep in mind that it is carcinogenic :/

Potentially... I have orange extract that does have alcohol... But that doesn't mean minors can't buy it... Nor is it intoxicating - for those that have alcohol exclusion clauses in their religion (if you're that anal about it - oranges have a small amount of alcohol in them... so I've just ruined oranges for you :p) ;) Well, it would be intoxicating if you drank enough - but you'll throw up before that happens.

i went through my spice box and fridge and found that lots of flavorings have alcohol in them, like: vanilla extract 38%, strawberry extract 42%, pineapple extract 35%, and mint extract with 89% alcohol.